RANDY HISNER
WZBD.com
Woodlan’s twin towers, 6-8 Oliver Adams and 6-7 Trey Yoder, dominated the Bellmont Braves at both ends of the floor to lead the Warriors to a 65-39 victory at home Saturday night.
It was the season opener for the Braves. The Warriors opened Tuesday with a loss to New Haven.
The Indiana Tech-bound Yoder led all scorers with 20 points and blocked several shots. Adams was second in the scoring column with 14 while helping Yoder patrol the paint defensively.
“When you have 6-7 and 6-8 inside that are able to pass the ball and see the floor, that makes a big difference,” said Woodlan coach John Baker. “Then other guys have confidence stepping in from the outside, hitting wide open shots.”
If opponents decide to collapse on Yoder and Adams to limit their inside scoring, they give Warrior guards open looks. If they try to defend the perimeter, they risk letting the big men score almost at will in the post.
Not much of a choice, and that’s the way Baker likes it.
“We want to put the other team in a bind as far as having to pick what they are going to give us, and we want to make sure both options are good options,” Baker said. “Tonight that was pretty emphatic early on.”
Yoder hit a three in the third quarter, but the other 31 points that he and Adams combined for all came from the post or from free throws when they were fouled inside.
Both frequently dished the ball off to teammates for open shots, helping two other Warriors reach double digits—Drew Fleek with 11 (including a breakaway dunk in the second quarter) and sophomore Keaton Delagrange with 10 (including a pair of threes).
In the game’s opening moments, Beau Baker gave the Braves a temporary lead when he hit a three-pointer from the top of the key, but the Warriors got a putback by Fleek, a postup bucket by Yoder, a layup by Adams, and another putback—this time by Delagrange—to go up 8-3.
Will Baker stopped the streak with a three-pointer to make it 8-6. Woodlan responded with an 8-2 run to make it 16-8 at the first stop.
Beau Baker hit a pair of threes in the second quarter, and freshman Daniel Selking added another, but that was all the scoring the Braves could muster while Woodlan scored 17—Fleek and Yoder leading with five each—to take a 33-17 lead into the locker room.
Despite seven points in the third quarter from Bellmont’s Gavin Krull, the Warriors outscored the Braves 18-9, thanks mostly to an 11-0 run early in the period, to make it 51-26.
The Warriors narrowly won the final quarter, 14-13.
“They’re a good basketball team. They do a good job of taking advantage of what they have with their size inside,” summed up Bellmont coach Payton Selking.
He was impressed with the Warriors’ aggressive play on the boards. “They crash so hard,” he said. “I think our coaches had them for 13 or 14 offensive rebounds for the night. With a team like that, you just can’t give them that many second-chance opportunities.”
Selking was taking on a veteran Woodlan team with a relatively inexperienced squad of Braves. Only Gavin Krull returns from the starting lineup of last year’s NE8 co-champions, but the coach saw some positives.
“There were a lot of good things we did,” he noted. “I loved the energy and the effort early on. I loved the fight still in the second half and the way Will Baker played in the second half.” (That’s when Baker scored 10 of his team-high 13 points.)
“I thought we did a better job shot-selection-wise and attacking the basket in the second half, which was great to see,” he added. “I’m glad they were able to make that adjustment and be a little more aggressive off the dribble.”
Forced to shoot from the outside, the Braves had 27 three-point attempts but hit only six for 22%. They were 9-of-25 on twos (36%), and 3-of-5 on free throws (60%).
The Warriors were 18-for-32 on twos (56%), 6-for-18 on threes (33%), and 5-for-7 from the line (71%).
Beau Baker and Krull each scored nine for the Braves. Cameron Summers had five, Daniel Selking three.
Woodlan won the JV contest, 42-35. Derick Vogel led Bellmont with 13 points. Bellmont took the freshman game, 32-27.
Bellmont will host Fort Wayne Concordia Tuesday.
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